Silent Ark

Chapter 62: The First Era

Unit Zero moved forward along the passage.

The base of the building is getting closer.

Sonar Display—

The building is not situated on the seabed.

It is suspended.

There is a 400-meter gap between the bottom and the seabed rock layers.

At a depth of 4,200 meters, a two-kilometer-wide metal structure floats in the water.

There are no cables.

There is no support.

It just floated there.

Unit 0 passed through the gap.

The building's base is flat.

Like the roof, it is covered with lines.

However, the lines at the bottom are not a topographic map.

It is written language.

Or to be more precise—

It is a kind of information encoding system.

It has an extremely high density.

Each square meter of surface has tens of thousands of grooves, arranged not linearly, but in a spiral pattern.

It unfolds outward from the center, like a DNA double helix being flattened and laid flat.

Unit-00's lights swept across its bottom.

Shen Ruozhi stared at the sonar image on the screen.

"Information density..." she estimated in her mind, "The amount of information on the entire bottom surface is more than all written records in human history combined."

The end of the passage.

The twelve aircraft regrouped and converged in front of an opening at the bottom of the building.

The opening is very large.

Unit 0 can be driven in.

It was filled with blue light.

Shen Qingci remained silent for five seconds.

"Go in."

Unit 0 drove into the opening.

The interior space is much larger than the exterior suggests.

Sonar ranging display —

This chamber has a diameter of over 800 meters and a height of nearly 200 meters.

The water has changed here.

It's not seawater.

The sensor readings of Unit 00 began to fluctuate—

Salinity, density, temperature, and refractive index all deviate from the standard values ​​of Pacific Ocean water.

"Fresh water." Shen Ruozhi looked at the data. "Temperature-controlled fresh water, 23 degrees Celsius."

At a depth of 4,200 meters on the seabed, there is a freshwater chamber with a diameter of 800 meters.

The temperature is constant.

Light streamed through the walls of the chamber—

The cool blue color, with the same light patterns as the aircraft's surface, but softer, like moonlight shining through ice.

In the center of the chamber, there is a platform.

Ferrous metals.

The steps extend up from the water's surface, extending about thirty meters above the water.

There are people on the platform.

It wasn't those three grey-skinned scouts.

Different.

Five.

Their body size is similar to that of humans.

It's about two meters, not two and a half meters.

The skin was still grayish-white, but more delicate, with a translucent texture, and light patterns were faintly visible beneath it.

They were wearing something.

Not a dark blue covering—

It is a fabric.

Black, precisely tailored, with a collar and pleats.

clothes.

They were dressed.

Unit 0 approaches the platform.

Shen Qingci stood at the door of the airtight cabin, where the deep-sea armor was already in place.

"I'm going out," she said.

"Team Leader Shen—" Wang Xindong.

"They greeted us with prime numbers, pointed out the way with a map, and lined up their aircraft to meet us." Shen Qingci checked the armor's seal. "If this is a trap, it's polite to an absurd degree."

She pressed the hatch switch.

Seawater rushed into the airtight compartment—

wrong.

No water rushed in.

Outside the airtight chamber is air.

The water level in the freshwater chamber is below the platform steps.

Unit 0 floats on the water, and the first step of the platform is accessible through the airtight hatch.

air.

Twenty-three degrees.

The air pressure is normal.

Shen Qingci stepped out of Unit Zero.

The boots of the deep-sea armor stepped onto the black metal steps.

A crisp sound.

She walked up the steps.

Every step was under the watchful eyes of those five beings.

They didn't move.

Shen Qingci walked to the highest point of the platform, about fifteen meters away from them.

Stop.

She took off her helmet.

Her black hair fell over her shoulders.

At a depth of 4,200 meters, she stood in a chamber of a First Age civilization, breathing air at 23 degrees Celsius, facing five clothed beings.

silence.

Seven seconds.

Then the one in the very center opened up.

The sound came from its throat—

It has vocal cords, or rather, some kind of organ that can vibrate the air to produce sound.

But that voice—

"...Who do you know more about?"

Shen Qingci's pupils contracted slightly.

Classical Chinese.

Liezi: Tang Wen

The question that stumped Confucius when the two children debated about the sun—

"Who said you were so knowledgeable?"

This is not a randomly selected sentence.

This is a test.

It was confirming whether Shen Qingci could understand this language.

Shen Qingci did not answer.

She understood, but she wasn't sure what language to use to reply.

The second one on the left said the next sentence.

"तत्त्वमसि."

Sanskrit.

The Upanishads.

"That's you."

Another classic philosophical statement.

The third.

"Cogito, ergo sum".

Latin.

Descartes.

the fourth.

"Je pense, donc je suis."

French.

The same sentence.

The fifth one remained silent.

The middle part reopens.

"I think, therefore I am."

English.

Five languages.

From the oldest to the most modern, from East to West, from before Christ to after Christ.

They are in school.

Shen Qingci finally understood—

They weren't showing off their language skills.

They scanned Shen Qingci's reaction time, pupil changes, and micro-expressions to determine which language she processed fastest.

Which language is her brain most accustomed to?

The being in the middle closed its eyes for a moment.

When it opened its eyes again, its lips moved.

"You arrived three years later than expected."

Modern Chinese.

mandarin.

His pronunciation was clear and accurate.

No accent.

Shen Qingci's hands were trembling—

She used great restraint to prevent the trembling from showing on her face.

"You've been watching all along," she said.

"Observation." That's the point of correction: "Seeing is passive, observation is active, systematic, and recorded."

"How long did the observation last?"

"It begins when you learn to use fire."

Shen Qingci's breath hitched for a second.

From learning to use fire.

One and a half million years.

Who are you?

"This problem requires first defining 'who'," the being said. "If 'who' refers to identity—"

We are the seventh generation of the Atlantis management family.

If "who" refers to a species—we share the same origin as you.

If "who" refers to a position—"

It paused for a moment.

"That depends on what you do next."

Shen Ruozhi's voice came through the communicator next to Shen Qingci's ear—

She kept listening.

"Shared origin?" Shen Ruozhi's voice was low, but every word was burning hot. "The First Era civilization and humanity share a common origin?"

That being tilted its head slightly.

The movement was very light, but Shen Qingci noticed it—

It is listening to the voice in the communicator.

"Your companion asked a good question," it said, "but the word 'cognate' is not precise enough."

It raised its hand.

Six fingers.

Like a scout.

But its fingers are longer and more slender, with fine lines at the fingertips—

fingerprint.

"The First Age civilization did not go extinct."

Its voice was calm, as if stating a fact that had been verified countless times.

"We shut ourselves off. Actively, consciously. We folded our consciousness and stored it deep within the architecture, surrendering our bodies to the seven driving forces."